WWE SmackDown: 3 shockers & surprises from this week’s episode (April 30, 2019)

While Raw struggled to continue their build towards the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, it was SmackDown once again which had their complete focus on the event.

Not only did we get to watch a good match between Becky Lynch and Bayley, but the events after that also continued to build-up towards the SmackDown Women’s Championship match for the event.

Kofi Kingston and Kevin Owens were involved in two separate segments to begin and end the night, with the WWE Champion laying down a challenge to The Prizefighter.

SmackDown also got their share of the Money in the Bank Ladder Match contenders, while Roman Reigns and Elias further built towards their match for the event.

At the end of the night, there were quite a few shocking moments which we’ll look at on in this article and try to make out what they might mean for the future.

#3 Mustafa Ali standing tall

SmackDown's participants in the men's Money in the Bank ladder match on May 19 came together Tuesday for a star-studded tag team encounter.

The babyfaces, Ali and Finn Balor, aligned to take on Randy Orton and Andrade. The first surprise was seeing Finn Balor be a part of the MITB Ladder Match while holding the Intercontinental Championship, which shows that WWE doesn’t really have a competitor for him on the blue brand yet to defend his title at the event.

After Ali delivered a 450 splash and picked up the victory, Orton came from out of nowhere to drop Balor with an RKO.

Ali answered with a superkick to Randy Orton before standing tall. This was quite surprising and odd as WWE logic states that the man standing tall after a big match usually goes home empty-handed after the main match.

What was more surprising was to see a babyface stand tall at the end of the night rather than someone like Andrade which would have opened more possibilities for the creative.